Free Republic

Judge Scalia's death put Roe v. Wade back in the conversation. After all, abortion and that 1973 opinion are always foremost in the minds of U.S. Senators confirming judicial nominees. One side is looking for a justice to save it and the other side wants one to overturn it.   Nevertheless, abortion clinics are closing across the country and it has nothing to do with Roe v. Wade. It's about states restricting the clinics, as we see in this report: At no time since before 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion, has a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy been more dependent on...

Around the country this summer, at least half a dozen hospitals have closed obstetric wards, others have curtailed trauma services, and a string of rural clinics have been temporarily shuttered as a result of soaring costs for medical malpractice insurance. Mercy Hospital in West Philadelphia closed its maternity ward on Friday, and the Largo Medical Center, near Tampa, Fla., plans to do so in December. The roots of the crisis are complex. The insurance companies, President Bush and the American Medical Association largely fault the rising cost of awards in malpractice lawsuits. From 1995 to 2000, the average jury award...